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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Asian Men Deliberately Excluded from Star Wars?
ow that the fifth installment of the Star Wars saga has hit theatres, it's official: Asian men have no place in George Lucas's vision of the future. An Asian female Jedi was glimpsed in the most recent installment, but not one single Asian male has been spotted in any of the five movies.
The absence is all the more remarkable given that Star Wars borrows its themes and fight scenes so obviously from samurai and kung-fu flicks. On a purely demographic level, it's difficult to imagine a distant future in which Asians will not be the preponderance of humanity. Even on a mundane economic level, Asians account for at least a third of today's global box office and video revenues.
The utter absence of Asian men in the latest installment is even more glaring in light of the promises Lucas made in response to Asian protests over the omission of Asian actors coupled with suspicious attachment of Asian cultural traits to unsavory alien grotesqueries in The Phantom Menace. Lucas had even hinted that images of Bruce Lee would be used in the installment now known as The Clone Wars.
In The Phantom Menace Lucas used Asian martial artists both to choreograph and perform the kendo-inspired light-saber sequences. But as if wishing to take back the decision, in The Clone Wars Lucas's PR machine made a point of showing that the fight sequences were choreographed by a white man and performed by the actors themselves. That explains why they were so leaden and lackluster, but raises the question why?
Could it be that George Lucas wants to avoid calling attention to his large debt to Asian action films?
Is Lucas afraid that including an Asian man will invite critical focus on the new movie's sub-par swordfight sequences?
Is Lucus slyly inviting viewers to see wizened little Master Yoda as a winking representation of Asian men?
Despite his avowed interest in Chinese and Japanese martial arts, culture, literature and films, is Lucas a closet racist after all?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:56:01 PM)
Geoff DB
i agree about the humour in Rush Hour being tiring.....Chris Tucker just trundles out the usual black/asian stereotypes and the delivery is neither funny nor flattering.....i don't think they make a good buddy team as with say Mel Gibson & Danny Glover in the lethal weapon series.....all i can say to Jackie Chan is "i like your old stuff better than your new stuff"
maxdacat
Monday, June 03, 2002 at 03:18:31 (PDT)
How do you expect anyone to respect Asians when Asians don’t even respect themselves? Do you think complaining about the non-representation of Asians in Star Wars or in any other movie or television program is something important?
All you’re going to do is complain, which is what whites want to see you doing. They enjoy seeing that whites have something that you desire. It makes them feel powerful. It makes them feel superior. And do you think they’re going to give up feeling superior and stop seeing you begging for white acceptance by giving you what you want? They’re laughing at you, teasing you with their acceptance. They dangle it over you, seeing you jump for it every time like a dog doing a trick.
It’s not like you’re going to vilify whites for it. You don’t even vilify them when they actually commit an act of racially motivated aggression against Asians. Whites know that Asians are a safe race to be racist to and they never have to fear retribution and/or the suffering of severe loss by committing such an act. Whites can commit a holocaust on Asians and you wouldn’t even vow revenge. All you’d do is try to figure out how to appease the white race even more and you may even give them an excuse for doing it.
Blacks will always get more out of movies and television because whites have to prove something to them. You know why? Because blacks have vilified whites for their crimes against Africans and most of all... whites fear them. Asians think that if they go the other route by appeasing whites in every way, they’ll be rewarded for it. Guess again! Leave whites to their natural devices and all you get is racism.
You see whites cry for human rights in whatever holocaust of the month directs them to and when it's your turn, you interpret it as whites caring about you. You want more love from white people so you help them perpetuate the lie that they care. All they’re doing is pointing out how inferior you are and how whites have a moral right to force their white supremacist values, in the guise of democracy and human rights, on you. It’s like how white men treat women by making them confuse abuse with love. “I’m only beating you because I love you. If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t bother to care!”
Slayer of the Gods
Sunday, June 02, 2002 at 22:41:50 (PDT)
"All I'm saying is we need to be fair how we project fellow Americans in the media. We need to have more balanced character roles to deflect racial stereotypes."
you, sir, are still a true american.
but as for the "comedian" stuff, i mostly object to the "playing to the white audience" in order to have money or fame and thus on some levels "selling out." i always thought that a "true" ethnic comedian or actor can appeal to both the mainstream and yet still their ethnic groups. last year's oscar with danzel washington and (to a lesser degree for obvious reasons) halle berry because they weren't "pandering to white audiences." but i'm in general against the lowest-common-denominator approach by hollywood to both "blockbusters" and films dealing with ethnicity. the john singletons are very rare indeed because of this reason.
villageidiot
Sunday, June 02, 2002 at 09:49:28 (PDT)
"million of years ago that our single cell anscestors, developed a symbotic relations with another single cell organism (which produced it own power). This relationship lead to us humans."
and lots of other mammels as well no doubt. however the other theory i've heard is that the cell actually "enslaved" the mitochondria for it's purposes. so who cares? but i was joking as to the force stuff in anakin being immaculate conception as lucas probably stole that idea like he does all other thematic elements. don't get so worked up over nothing like a stupid movie.
villageidiot
Sunday, June 02, 2002 at 09:42:25 (PDT)
"Can you say more about your acting experiences? Do you live in LA? How many parts have you tried out for? Did they ever specifically say that you weren't right for a part because you're asian?"
my experiences have been mostly high school/university theater productions and some independent films. i'm from the east coast, right now in florida. in terms of auditioning, i can't really remember because it's pointless to remember which shows you've been denied, just move on and forget them is the best way to deal with rejection.
as for being rejected for a role, casting directors are even more insidious than the racists. at least a racist will openly tell you in your face. but casting directors hide behind the excuse "you're not right for the part." and believe me when i say that statement is the chagrin of all actors. "you're not right for the part" could mean anything from something trite as hair color or style to "you're not the right race for this role."
as for overt discrimination in casting, i can recount this one community theater (for which my experiences are way over qualified for but i still wanted to be involved) for a production of 'westside story' i wanted to be part of the PR sharks gang since other productions had asians and PR have asians as well, but the director of course didn't cast me. so how do i know it's because of race? the very next year my friend, also asian, tried to audition for 'king and i' which i didn't bother. so he didn't get ANY role in it at all. now you think this is a play that takes place in the old "burma" of SE asia and yet the guy chose to cast a white boy as the king and other white boys as the king's court and harem. you tell me if this was simply our hair color wasn't the right shade.
villageidiot
Sunday, June 02, 2002 at 09:39:02 (PDT)
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